Punch-Drunk Love
by TerrierLee
Summary: An out of control Cupimon is making everyone fall in love with the wrong person. Tagiru tries to fix the mayhem.


"Hey Tagiru~"

Akashi Tagiru grabbed his X Loader from his back pocket, bringing it out and holding it close to his face, all the while keeping an eye on the people around him, "What is it?"

The image on the X Loader flickered.

"What are we doing here? I thought we were going Hunting today."

Tagiru shook his head, putting the X Loader back in his pocket, once again staring at the display in front of him. "Yeah, we're going later. I just have to do this one thing."

"Ehhh. I thought you already got your lunch for the day, that's why you were almost late today."

Tagiru winced, not exactly thrilled to be reminded of earlier that day. With Valentine's Day right around the corner, all the girls in his class, no, make that the entire school, were getting crazier than normal. It was hard enough trying to get Taiki away from his adoring fans, but now it was affecting Tagiru's daily interaction with Yuu.

_Come to think of it_, Tagiru looked down at the floor, _I couldn't even get Yuu to eat lunch with me. Not that we do it all the time but…_

Gritting his teeth, he brought his head up, focusing on the task at hand. He shut his eyes, quickly grabbing something off the display, before opening his eyes and taking his prize to the register.

* * *

There was something iffy going on.

After a failed Hunting the previous day and oversleeping the next morning, Tagiru ran faster than normal, even forgetting to grab his first lunch on the way to school, coming to a halt as he swung the door to the classroom open, expecting to find the teacher already in the middle of teaching.

What he didn't expect to see was empty desks, not even Yuu was in the deserted classroom.

Tagiru frowned, if anything, _Yuu_, being the model student he was, would never absent from school without a valid reason. But here the entire class?

He backed out of the room, peeking into the neighboring class.

There were a number of students, even a teacher, but even from where Tagiru stood, he could tell there were kids missing.

He reached for his X Loader, "Gumdramon!"

"Right-o!" There was a bright line from the device and then the purple Digimon stood before Tagiru. "It's a Digimon! Let's Hunt it, Tagiru!"

Tagiru gripped his X Loader in his hand, "Alright!"

First thing first, find Yuu. See if something really was wrong with him. No, better check with Taiki. If anyone knew what was going on, it would be Taiki.

As it turned out, Taiki was on the roof, staring out at the city, his eyes glazed over.

Tagiru approached slowly. "Uh… Taiki?"

The proclaimed superstar turned around, making his eyes even glassier. "Tagiru?" A grin slipped onto his face, following a bright red tint on his cheeks. "Tagiru~ It's just you~"

"Uh…" Tagiru glanced down at Gumdramon, who only returned the look with a shrug, "Taiki? Are you okay?"

Taiki giggled, _giggled_, "Yeah I'm fine." He brought out his own red X Loader, "Everything's great!" He held up his device, "Reload! Shoutmon!"

As soon as the light faded, the king of the Digital World scowled, "Oi Taiki, you need to snap out o—"

Shoutmon, unfortunately, never got to finish, as Taiki leaned down and instantly caught the Digimon in a hug.

"TAIKI!"

"Oh Shoutmon, I love you~ I love you so much~ Shoutmon~"

"Er…" Tagiru took a step back, Gumdramon doing the same, "Maybe I should come back… later…"

"Oi!" Shoutmon glared from in between Taiki's arms, "Tagiru! Gumdramon! You gotta fix this!"

"Eh?!" Tagiru blinked, "How are we supposed to fix this?"

"I don't know!" Shoutmon grunted, "Just do something!" He gave Taiki a firm shove and then vanished inside the X Loader. In an instant, Taiki deflated, a mournful look on his face.

"Shoutmon…"

* * *

"I hope the King is gonna be all right…" Gumdramon whispered, the two were running around DigiQuartz, trying to see if any DIgimon was causing the love spell Taiki was in.

"Ah don't worry about him, he should be fine. Though I have to admit," Tagiru spared a moment to grin, "that's the first time I saw Taiki like that. I should have taken a picture."

Their laughter came to a sudden halt as they rounded the corner of the school, a beam of light hitting something a ways ahead of them. As the light died down, the person fell to the floor.

"Yuu!"

Tsuwamon flew down beside his human, "Yuu are you alright?"

"Yuu!"

Tagiru ran faster, stopping only when he reached his friend. The blond groaned, twisting in Tsuwamon's arms, "I'm… fine…"

Gumdramon peered up from beside Tagiru, "What was that light?"

"Whatever it was," Tsuwamon said gravely, "It hit Yuu head-on."

"Well," Tagiru rubbed the back of his head, "it doesn't look like it did anything bad, just knocked him out. I've got him, you guys go get that Digimon!" He held out his arms and Tsuwamon slid Yuu over.

Once Yuu was comfortable in his arms, Tagiru finally took a look at the Digimon they were fighting.

It was a cute little thing, completely white save for the wings on its back that were a pale yellow, its eyes wide and what looked like a horn on its head. It also appeared to be holding a bow and a bunch of arrows.

It squeaked as Tsuwamon came forward. "Leave me be! I just want to bring love to everyone!"

Gumdramon's fists balled up, "Tagiru, I wanna fight him! Let me at him!"

Tagiru nodded slowly, about to make a grab for his X Loader when the boy in his arms groaned again.

"Yuu! You're awake!"

"Ah…" Yuu rubbed his eyes, "Not so loud Tagiru…" Slowly, his eyes opened, and he glanced down, looking at the purple Digimon beside them.

As he did, a jolt went through his body, his pupils replaced with hearts. He jumped out of Tagiru's arms, wrapping his own around Gumdramon.

"Gumdramon! I love you!"

"EH?!" Tagiru and Gumdramon looked at each other with wide eyes, even Tsuwamon had frozen in the midst of an attack.

Yuu rubbed his head against Gumdramon's, the silliest grin gracing his face.

Tagiru winced, pulling himself up to his feet, "Yuu…"

But the blond didn't hear him, instead focusing all his attention on the little Digimon in his arms, all the while proclaiming his love.

Tagiru took a step back, taking a deep breath before turning around completely. He pretended not to hear Gumdramon's yelling, Yuu's declarations of love, only looking straight on at the Digimon that had started all this mess.

"Tsuwamon."

"Yes?"

Tagiru held up his X Loader, "Help me get rid of this Digimon. For Yuu-, for everyone's sake."

The Digimon ninja nodded, "Alright."

* * *

It didn't take long, the Digimon, now identified as Cupimon, was generally fast, but Tsuwamon was faster, quickly taking the little troublemaker out. With another Digimon in his X Loader, Tagiru finally looked back at his friends.

Gumdramon was out of Yuu's grasp, the human now standing up and facing the opposite direction. Damemon hopped forward, coming up to Yuu and rubbing against his leg.

"Yuu?"

"I'm fine."

Tagiru winced again, this time at the zone Yuu used. He put Gumdramon away, and came up behind the other boy.

"You know Yuu, this really isn't that bad. Man, you should have seen Taiki! He was on the roof at school, telling Shoutmon he was head over heels for him! It was hilarious! I wish I had taken a picture, you would have thought it was great!" He put a hand on Yuu's shoulder, a grin on his face, expecting, just maybe, that everything was gonna be okay.

Yuu shrugged the hand off his shoulder, his body tight, hands balled into fists.

From beside him, Damemon sagged to the ground, "Yuu, acting this way is no good! No good!"

There was a sigh, long and full of something Tagiru couldn't place, but before he could ask, Yuu kicked at the ground, "Let's go back. I want to check on Taiki-san."

* * *

It turned out, the Cupimon really wanted everyone to be genuinely happy for Valentine's Day, but was not used to figuring out who liked who.

Hence the confusion.

Taiki had laughed off the entire episode, patting Yuu on the back. "Lucky for us, Tagiru saved the day again!"

No one else seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary, and Valentine's Day ended without much fuss.

Taiki had received a bunch of chocolates from his admirers, Yuu ended up with even more than Taiki.

And Tagiru? He only got one, from Mami.

The three friends walked along the streets, Taiki and Yuu holding bags full of chocolate.

"Hey guys, think we should stop somewhere and get a bite to eat? Not that I don't want to eat all this chocolate, but let's get some real food!"

"You should give some of that chocolate to us!" Gumdramon's voiced piped up from Tagiru's pocket.

In the end, they decided to stop by a ramen shop, their bags of chocolate on the floor as they ate their noodles. Throughout the meal, Tagiru was strangely silent. Once they were done, Taiki waved goodbye, taking his spoils of war home, fully intending on giving it away to his Digimon.

Yuu and Tagiru walked side by side. All around them, couples were walking about, holding hands, giggling, being… lovey dovey.

All the while, Tagiru had his hand in his pocket, a nervous sweat evident on his brow. Even though he went ahead and bought the thing, he never dreamed he would have the moment to give it to the other boy. He wasn't even used to being so fidgety. When Tagiru wanted to do something, he went and did it. That was how he was.

So why was giving chocolate to his friend freaking him out so much?

"Hey Tagiru?"

"Ah!" The gogglehead fell backwards, not expecting to be called out to so suddenly.

Yuu bent down next to him, holding out a hand, "Jeez, what's the matter with you? Are you alright?"

Tagiru remained on the floor for only a moment, before a laughter bubbled out of him, he grabbed Yuu's hand, using it to get back on his feet. "What? I'm fine!" He patted the other boy hard on the back, "Never better!"

Yuu frowned, "Well when we were eating, you weren't talking, Taiki-san also seemed to notice."

A gulp caught itself in Tagiru's throat, bringing him to a stop as he coughed, "Wh—What are you talking about?"

Yuu brought his hand up to his hand, scratching his cheek, "Well, I just figured… Nevermind, forget about it."

Well now he was interested. "What did you figure out?"

The blond sighed, sounding similar to earlier, "Well, it's Valentine's Day, Taiki-san and I got all this chocolate while you only got one."

Tagiru blinked. "Oh." He looked down, "It's not that. I'm used to that." He gave Yuu a smile, "It's nothing new. Besides—" He choked on the next words, eyes going wide. "Er, no, nevermind."

Yuu frowned, "You can't do that! Besides what?"

"Hey Tagiru! Are you gonna give Yuu what you bought the other day?"

The brunet gave off a yell, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT GUMDRAMON'S TALKING ABOUT."

"But—You spent an awful long time deciding on it. That's why all the good Digimon were gone before we could Hunt!"

A small smile slipped onto Yuu's face, Tagiru's face turning five shades of red.

With a start, Tagiru shoved something at the blond, his head turned to the side, "I know this holiday is for girls to give stuff to guys, but…"

Yuu looked down, taking the box of chocolates. It was one of those limited time, just for Valentine's Day, kind, that even the girls at school couldn't get.

He glanced back up, Tagiru still turned away, his ears bright red.

"Thank you Tagiru."

The other boy nodded, "Yeah."


End file.
